(02-21-2016 11:25 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  The key yesterday was Evans gave them offensive production. When UC can get production from at least one of Cobb/Evans/Shaq/Johnson they do OK offensively. When UC can get production from two of those guys they are a good offensive team. It happened a ton during the nonconference, but those guys have often been invisible during conference play. The Bearcats would be a top 15 caliber team if they got consistent offensive production from the 2 and 3 position. During conference play Troy and Clark have just had to do too much.

Honestly UC's best lineup is Caupain, Johnson, Evans, Clark and Ellis (though man Ellis has struggled recently to finish). People kill Johnson but he is a joy to watch on the defensive end. He just gets into people and doesn't let them do anything. If Cobb isn't going to make open jump shots it's hard to put him on the floor over Johnson.

When a team makes shots, their good. When they don't, just like Mick said, not enough talent to compensate. Luckily some went in at the start of the game yesterday. Up by 12 and can't put a team away, troubling. On to ECU.

(02-21-2016 11:25 AM)bearcatmark Wrote:  The key yesterday was Evans gave them offensive production. When UC can get production from at least one of Cobb/Evans/Shaq/Johnson they do OK offensively. When UC can get production from two of those guys they are a good offensive team. It happened a ton during the nonconference, but those guys have often been invisible during conference play. The Bearcats would be a top 15 caliber team if they got consistent offensive production from the 2 and 3 position. During conference play Troy and Clark have just had to do too much.

Honestly UC's best lineup is Caupain, Johnson, Evans, Clark and Ellis (though man Ellis has struggled recently to finish). People kill Johnson but he is a joy to watch on the defensive end. He just gets into people and doesn't let them do anything. If Cobb isn't going to make open jump shots it's hard to put him on the floor over Johnson.

Completely agree. KJ-Shaq lineups are too limited offensively and Cobb-Evans is a defensive problem. KJ could be a really good player in the perimeter stopper role like IMac but you need good offensive players around him. For this reason I consider Evans the key for this team.

If we can get consistent play from Troy, Clark AND Evans like that we can be really, really good. Hopefully yesterday was a turning point for Evans. If those guys can become players who defenses have to worry about, the rest of our roster is some really nice complimentary pieces.

(02-20-2016 11:36 PM)Bruce Monnin Wrote:  Went to my first game in person today. A few thoughts:

1) If anyone ever complains about our fans not filling those last 1000-2000 seats again, I'm not buying it. Sat four rows from the top, and while the view was not as bad as i remember it, I did have a better view of the light fixtures than the floor. Also, while my daughters in the band said their ears were ringing after the game because it was so loud, it was not loud at all in our seats. I feel we missed out on a lot of the crowd excitement of the game.

2) Gary Clark takes another step towards being a star every game. Plus I think he is starting to take a bigger leadership role on the floor. He was fun to watch today.

3) Early in the game, Evans let UConn players drive past him to the basket. Combined with the Tulsa game, I was thinking we can not afford to keep him on the floor unless his defense improves. So I made an effort to watch him on defense the rest of the game, and he ended up giving one of his better defensive efforts. If he can keep improving here, he will be very valuable down the stretch.

4) What has happened to Cobb lately? The team actually seemed better when Kevin Johnson would come in for him.

5) Is it just me or is Ellis also going backwards? Thankfully, I like what I saw from DeBerry today.

6) Offensive pacing. The crowd was just begging for any excuse to rise to its feet and yell today. A couple times we scored, then had a steal and quickly scored again, and the crowd would roar. Then we would make a defensive stop, and as the crowd roared its approval, Caupain would walk the ball over the half court line, then stop and look back to the bench to see what to do. By the time they started going again, the shot clock was down to 15 and the crowd was back to sitting down. All the momentum was lost. Also, my wife kept asking if maybe we should taking the ball more than a foot or two over the half court line before stopping to look back at the bench. We kept waiting for UConn to trap Caupain up against the halfcourt line.

7) Offensive sets. A swear we don't even run them half the time. Once late in the game it was like that scene from Hoosiers where the coach calls a play, but the team rebels and the star player just says "I'll make it." Evans had the ball in his hands and it was obvious they were not going to run anything except that he was going one on one and taking a jumper. Of course, he made it, but it still seemed like poor offense.

8) Defense. I wish we didn't give up so many wide open threes from the corner, but boy do those guys play hard on defense.

All in all, with all the warts, still a great win.

I agree that I don't understand why we walk the ball up, take 9 seconds off the clock, look to the bench, the start a play with 15 seconds left. After 2 passes we're forced to take a terrible shot or turnover the ball on an expired shot clock. Maddening.

Troy has got to play more aggressive. Mick called him out on the post game yesterday. Said he hit that early shot and kind of disappeared. When I saw the highlights I saw him penetrate a few times and kick it out. Would love to see him drive it to score. You've seen at the end of games he has that ability.

(02-21-2016 02:38 PM)RealDeal Wrote:  Troy has got to play more aggressive. Mick called him out on the post game yesterday. Said he hit that early shot and kind of disappeared. When I saw the highlights I saw him penetrate a few times and kick it out. Would love to see him drive it to score. You've seen at the end of games he has that ability.

He's such a good free throw shooter he needs to look to make contact.

One of the biggest differences this year over last year, is Troys shooting percentage. Last year 44 overall and 40 from 3, this year 37 overall and 31 from 3. I am not a math whiz so I do not know what that extrapolates in points on the season, but it has some significance.

(02-21-2016 03:05 PM)rtaylor Wrote:  One of the biggest differences this year over last year, is Troys shooting percentage. Last year 44 overall and 40 from 3, this year 37 overall and 31 from 3. I am not a math whiz so I do not know what that extrapolates in points on the season, but it has some significance.

yup...good call out. I think we are seeing the effects of CTT starting to spread into other sports at UC.

I think too Troy has handled the ball more often and taken more control in late clock situations. I'd wager he's taken a higher percentage of low percentage shots with the clock running down. He needs to take more shots in the regular offense to make up for some of those late clock shots

(02-21-2016 03:05 PM)rtaylor Wrote:  One of the biggest differences this year over last year, is Troys shooting percentage. Last year 44 overall and 40 from 3, this year 37 overall and 31 from 3. I am not a math whiz so I do not know what that extrapolates in points on the season, but it has some significance.

He is taking a TON of ill-advised pull-ups that he didn't do last year, and that's killing his shooting percentage for sure. He really only took three's last year in the rotation of the offense, but this year, he is coming down and chucking with 15 seconds on the shot clock. I'm not sure who gave him the green light, but they should probably move it to yellow.

Of every player who has attempted more than 25 threes this year, only one (Farad Cobb on 164 attempts, but since January 7th has only been shooting 27% from three point range) is making more than a third of their 3PT'ers, that kills us. When putting in our OREB%, that's basically giving away a possession every other time a three goes up in our offense...sad prospect when you look at the numbers. I can't remember when we actually had a good shooter on this roster, and don't give me Kilpatrick, volume scorer and good shooter are two very different distinctions.

Cobb has been in a slump but he's a good shooter. I think Evans is too though until yesterday he'd been really struggling. Anyone know troys shooting numbers in conference play? I feel like he's been better after starting the season slowly

(02-21-2016 05:51 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Cobb has been in a slump but he's a good shooter. I think Evans is too though until yesterday he'd been really struggling. Anyone know troys shooting numbers in conference play? I feel like he's been better after starting the season slowly

35 overall, 32 from 3.

(02-21-2016 05:51 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Cobb has been in a slump but he's a good shooter. I think Evans is too though until yesterday he'd been really struggling. Anyone know troys shooting numbers in conference play? I feel like he's been better after starting the season slowly

Evans has been struggling but that two point shot he hit with the shot clock winding down in the last minute or so was huge. Glad to see a frosh have the guts to do that.

(02-21-2016 06:06 PM)Bearcats#1 Wrote:  

(02-21-2016 05:51 PM)bearcatmark Wrote:  Cobb has been in a slump but he's a good shooter. I think Evans is too though until yesterday he'd been really struggling. Anyone know troys shooting numbers in conference play? I feel like he's been better after starting the season slowly

Evans has been struggling but that two point shot he hit with the shot clock winding down in the last minute or so was huge. Glad to see a frosh have the guts to do that.

Quadri has the guts to do it, too. He just misses.

Quad gave up a really good look yesterday and I honestly can't remember him taking a shot. No confidence (but not without good reason). Up to the coaching staff to help him get it back.

Shaq is looking iffy with foot/ankle & now groin injuries. We might need minutes from Qaud and it would be great if he could contribute.

I still have a hard time watching cobb:

In conference play cobb has made 5 FTs and jenifer has made 4. Cobb just isn't assertive, all he does is jack up 3's. He has taken 90 3's in conference play and only 7 free throw attempts.

Then throw kevin johnson into the mix, since conference play began he has 15 FT attempts and 61 three attempts, so our 2's have combined for 151 3's attempted and 22 free throw attempts.

This to me is such a bad ratio.

I think Cronin lets those get off too easy just jacking bad shots. last year under davis they combined for 8.3 Three Point Attempts and 2.7 Free Throw Attempts, this year the same duo 10 Three point attempts and 1.8 Free throw attempts / game. And as they gain experience you would hope they'd improve, SK became so good at getting to the foul line, every year he got better at that.

(02-21-2016 07:55 PM)ucbrownsfan Wrote:  I still have a hard time watching cobb:

In conference play cobb has made 5 FTs and jenifer has made 4. Cobb just isn't assertive, all he does is jack up 3's. He has taken 90 3's in conference play and only 7 free throw attempts.

Then throw kevin johnson into the mix, since conference play began he has 15 FT attempts and 61 three attempts, so our 2's have combined for 151 3's attempted and 22 free throw attempts.

This to me is such a bad ratio.

I think Cronin lets those get off too easy just jacking bad shots. last year under davis they combined for 8.3 Three Point Attempts and 2.7 Free Throw Attempts, this year the same duo 10 Three point attempts and 1.8 Free throw attempts / game. And as they gain experience you would hope they'd improve, SK became so good at getting to the foul line, every year he got better at that.

I like Cobb because he is so aggressive. I wish that would rub off on others. Driving the ball to basket and creating contact is not why he's out there. He's there to stretch the defense.

(02-21-2016 09:28 PM)BeerCat Wrote:  

(02-21-2016 07:55 PM)ucbrownsfan Wrote:  I still have a hard time watching cobb:

In conference play cobb has made 5 FTs and jenifer has made 4. Cobb just isn't assertive, all he does is jack up 3's. He has taken 90 3's in conference play and only 7 free throw attempts.

Then throw kevin johnson into the mix, since conference play began he has 15 FT attempts and 61 three attempts, so our 2's have combined for 151 3's attempted and 22 free throw attempts.

This to me is such a bad ratio.

I think Cronin lets those get off too easy just jacking bad shots. last year under davis they combined for 8.3 Three Point Attempts and 2.7 Free Throw Attempts, this year the same duo 10 Three point attempts and 1.8 Free throw attempts / game. And as they gain experience you would hope they'd improve, SK became so good at getting to the foul line, every year he got better at that.

I like Cobb because he is so aggressive. I wish that would rub off on others. Driving the ball to basket and creating contact is not why he's out there. He's there to stretch the defense.

Kevin Johnson, for me, is a guy who should make his living from the line. He needs to be way more physical on offense. He is big for a guard and seems to finish well when he goes to the rack yet he rarely ever does!

I have no problem with all the 3's Cobb jacks up. Most of them are good shots (I think almost anything is a good shot for him).

Roles need to start being more defined as we come down the stretch.

(02-22-2016 09:55 AM)DownOnRohs Wrote:  Roles need to start being more defined as we come down the stretch.

They should have been defined long before now.

(02-22-2016 09:58 AM)bearcatfan Wrote:  

(02-22-2016 09:55 AM)DownOnRohs Wrote:  Roles need to start being more defined as we come down the stretch.

They should have been defined long before now.

I think that's something Mick will hopefully learn from this season. With as much talent as he's ever had, everyone had too much offensive freedom IMO. But with the coming of age of Clark recently and hopefully Jacob Evans going forward, I hope the rest of the guys will finally settle into complimentary roles.